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Uninsured Rate Holds at Record Low

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Despite efforts by the Trump administration to undermine the Affordable Care Act, the uninsured rate over the first three months of 2018 among Americans of all ages was 8.8 percent, down slightly from 9.1 percent in 2017, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The uninsured population, at 28.3 million, has shrunk by 1 million since 2017 — and by 20.3 million compared with 2010, when the uninsured rate was 16 percent.

Among U.S. adults aged 18-64, the uninsured rate was 12.5 percent. Over the first three months of the year, 70 percent of adults interviewed by the CDC had private insurance plans and 19.2 percent were covered by public health insurance.

Unsurprisingly, the uninsured rate has fallen much further in states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The percentage of uninsured adults aged 18-64 in expansion states fell from 18.4 in 2013 to 8.7 in the first quarter of 2018. In non-expansion states, the percentage fell from 22.7 in 2013 to 17.5 in 2015. Those states saw a rise in their uninsured rate over the last few years, from 17.5 percent in 2015 to 19.0 percent in 2017 and 18.4 percent over the first months of this year.

As editor in chief, Yuval Rosenberg oversees all aspects of The Fiscal Times' website and email newsletter. His writing has appeared in publications including BusinessWeek, CNBC.com, CNNMoney.com, Fast Company, Fortune, Newsweek, Money and Time.